High-tech sail may cut cargo ship costs

Putting a harness on ocean winds, a German shipping company
plans to unfurl a giant high-tech kite over a cargo ship next year
to boost the vessel's propulsion and to conserve fuel.

The "SkySail", a 160 square-metre kite tethered to a mast, has
successfully undergone years of trial runs and Bremen shipowner
Beluga Shipping believes it will help its vessels cut fuel use by
15 to 20 per cent.

The "MV Beluga SkySails", now being built and fitted with a
paraglider-shaped sail and a "smart" central steerage unit, will
make its maiden voyage in early 2007.

"I got the idea on a sail boat a few years ago," Stephan Wrage,
inventor and founder of SkySails GmbH & Co KG, told
Reuters.

"I love flying kites and found sailing rather slow. I thought
the enormous power in kites could somehow be utilised."

The technology he has developed is a throwback to an earlier age
of maritime travel when ships relied solely on wind. But it also
addresses a key concern of the modern age: climate change.

Backers of "SkySail" call it a "green" project - by cutting fuel
use it could help reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed
for global warming.

Wrage, 34, said that depending on the vessel and the winds, fuel
costs for shippers could be cut by more than $US1,000 a day.

After four years of successful tests, it is anything but a
pie-in-the-sky project.

The inventor first tested a prototype of the SkySail on a 3.5
metre boat, then gradually increased the size of the craft before
testing it last year on a 55-metre vessel, the "Beaufort".

SkySail's price tag - at between 500,000 and 2.5 million euros
($A846,596 to $A4.23 million) - along with doubts it will deliver
promised savings, and its reliance on fickle ocean winds could
limit demand at first.

Wrage said ships will initially need to carry an engineer to
operate the sail, which is about as big as a medium-sized passenger
jet.

"It's going to save money in the long run and it's
environmentally friendly," said Verena Frank, project manager at
Beluga, a shipping firm with 40 vessels.

"We've integrated the system into our new ship from the start of
construction but ships can also be retro-fitted," she said in an
interview in this windswept northern port city with a rich
seafaring tradition dating back to the 8th century.

"Ours will be the first commercial use in cargo shipping," Frank
said.

"There will be some teething pains," she added.

SkySails can use powerful offshore winds between 100 and 300
metres above the surface with the help of the high-tech control
pod, but they would be useless with head-on winds and would not
benefit ships travelling above 16 knots.

The sails are unlikely to make much of an immediate impact on
the overall fuel and environment problems facing shippers.

Shipping carries more than 90 per cent of the world's traded
goods.

There are 30,000 merchant ships carrying everything from oil,
gas, coal, and grains to electronic goods.

Wrage has a staff of 33 and in 2007 expects to equip three more
ships with the SkySail. He projects 1,500 vessels will have the
system by 2015, when he reckons he will have 800 employees.

"It was important for me to prove that you can make money
working hand-in-hand with nature and not against it," he said.

"I think there could be a lot more linking of ecology and
economy."

Beluga Chief Executive Niels Stolberg said market forces were
the main reason he decided to enter a partnership with "SkySails"
in 2002. He placed the first order almost a year ago.

He expects SkySails to cut the $US7,500 ($A9,513) daily fuel
costs of his cargo ship by up to $US1,500 ($A1,902). And he said
the positive impact on the environment was a welcome dividend.

"You've got to look at new ideas to cope with developments in
oil prices," Stolberg said, adding it was not possible to pass
along such steep fuel prices to customers.

If SkySails works as expected, he plans to add the system one
vessel at a time.

"When energy prices double in such a short time, you've got to
innovate. We won't be able to switch the engines off. But we're
confident we can reduce fuel usage - and cut emissions."

He said his fuel prices have more than doubled from about $US150
per tonne in 2004 to between $US300 and $US400 per tonne this year
and he fears prices may soon rise to $US450. Prices have, however,
retreated somewhat in recent months.

"We can't sit back and ignore the market pressures and wait
until fuel hits $500," said Stolberg, whose nine-year-old firm
ships everything from giant turbine engines to locomotives for
customers including Siemens and General Electric.

On top of that, European Union restrictions on greenhouse gas
emissions threaten penalties for those who fail to act to curb
them, and the heavy fuels that ships use are deemed especially
dirty.

"From the European Union point of view, you will have
restrictions with CO2 emissions and they'll fine you," said
Frank.

"You've got to find ways to avoid that. As restrictions are
coming, every shipper must rethink their strategy."